“L’express” speaks to Muhammed Arshad Jan Pathan, the new Pakistani High Commissioner to Mauritius, about his take on the state of bilateral relations between Port-Louis and Islamabad. And why the two sides have not been able to sign a free trade agreement.

Now that you have settled in a bit, how would you characterize the state of relations between Pakistan and Mauritius today? 
Mauritius and Pakistan have a historical relationship. If we look at history, out of the people who came to settle in Mauritius from undivided India, many of them came from regions that are now in Pakistan. Secondly, both countries have always supported one another diplomatically at various multilateral forums. 

Give an example of such diplomatic support. 
Let us take the Chagos issue, for instance. We supported Mauritius at the UN over its stand on the Chagos and voted in favour of Mauritius. I congratulate Mauritius on behalf of the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan for its victory at the UN. Pakistan has always supported Mauritius on the issue of the Chagos and its stand on international law. 

Aside from diplomacy, what are the other facets of the bilateral relationship that you want to work on? 
There is a lot to do and a lot of potential when it comes to bilateral ties. There are a number of agreements at the final stages that should be signed between our two countries. During my tenure here, I will be emphasizing boosting bilateral trade, economic and cultural cooperation and people-topeople ties between the two countries. We will work to create awareness about Pakistan and its culture, cuisine, art, and literature.

There is a problem here though. In 2007, both countries signed a preferential trade agreement (PTA) and said they would eventually turn it into a free trade agreement. Since then, Mauritius has signed trade agreements with China and India. What is stopping Pakistan from signing one with us? 
Let me begin by saying that we signed the PTA with a view not just of boosting Pakistani exports to Mauritius, but also to boost Mauritian exports to Pakistan. A free trade agreement means that you do not have any duties on any items being traded; and a PTA is the initial stage of signing a free trade agreement where you begin by identifying a number of products that would initially receive preferential treatment. When we signed the PTA, we had a list of over 100 products in the agreement. Unfortunately, after that, Pakistan levied some duties on some products. In the case of Mauritius, it was mainly exporting soaps and detergents to Pakistan that was affected. The Mauritian government asked us to lift those duties which were not covered by the PTA. That duty was applied to all countries and was not country-specific. In October last year, because of reciprocity or some other reason, Mauritius delisted 20 items from the PTA as well. It’s been 15 years since that PTA was signed; so, what we in the high commission will be doing now is coordinating between Port-Louis and Islamabad to pragmatically rework that list. The main emphasis would be on working with our Mauritian brothers and sisters to find a winwin situation. 

One thing that could be on the list is sugar. Pakistan is a large sugar producer in its own right, but do you see any scope for the export of Mauritian specialty sugars to Pakistan? 
One way to do that is through the joint working group on trade that both countries established. This year, we are hoping to reactivate that and one of the things that we will be exploring is the export of Mauritian specialty sugars to Pakistan. We are a country of 220 million people, so there is always a huge demand for sugars. 

What is the trade relationship like right now? 
To be honest, the level of trade is much below its potential. The de-listing of items from the PTA hits bilateral trade. Right now, exports from Mauritius to Pakistan are worth a few million dollars while exports from Pakistan to Mauritius are between $20 million and $30 million mostly made up of rice, garments, plastic goods, sportswear and surgical equipment. I must add that just in February, there was a sports and healthcare expo in Pakistan for African and Central Asian business and a delegation from Mauritius also went there to promote their products. What we will now do is hold talks with these businessmen to see how we can facilitate them. 

What about people-to-people contacts? Mauritian tourism was hit by Covid-19 but one big problem of attracting tourism from Pakistan is that there are no direct flights as yet between Mauritius and Pakistan. Why has that not been done yet? 
This is on the agenda as well. Direct flights are not just for tourism, but to facilitate trade as well. There are a lot of Pakistanis who see Mauritius as a beautiful tourist destination, so we would like to start talks about direct flights whether through Air Mauritius or Pakistan International Airlines. At the moment, the lack of direct flights is a disincentive to tourism from both sides. We too would like to see Mauritian tourists coming, we have all kinds of attractions from mountains to coastal areas, as well as a very rich heritage and scope for religious tourism, being home to sites important for the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist faiths as well as being home to an ancient civilization with sites such as Mohenjo Daro and Harappa. There are a lot of Pakistanis who would like to come and invest in Mauritian tourism as well. 

Speaking of investment, within the region Pakistan is positioning itself as a major pivot through its port in Gwadar and its link to the Belt and Road Initiative. What place is there for a small island like Mauritius in this vision? 
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a huge concept, and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is the flagship project of that. The BRI is not just about infrastructure such as energy, roads and ports but it is also about trade. Gwadar is a part of that because it is the world’s deepest port where any kind of transhipment can take place and its link through CPEC means that it’s linked with the whole of China, Central Asia and the BRI network. Pakistan is open to all international partners and Mauritius should be a part of that to export overseas to these markets too. 

You also have special economic zones within the BRI, not just for Chinese manufacturing to set up in Pakistan but for other countries as well. A lot of Mauritian manufacturers have, or are looking to delocalise. Can they work there? 
There is a huge potential there. The 21 special economic zones offer a lot of incentives, you can enter any industry, there are no limits on profit repatriation, no minimum investment requirements, no duties on importing capital goods and you are provided utilities like water and electricity for 10 years. Besides the BRI, the whole of Central, South and East Asia is becoming a hub for manufacturing. And we are open to, and would welcome Mauritius, as well.